Top extensions for securing your web browser

Every now and again in this column, we like to go through and update our list of the best add-ons for securing your browser

These are the very top add-ons for making you safe from tracking cookies and metrics, from malicious website code and from hackers trying to intercept your browser traffic. They will block ads and bypass geoblocks and content filters as well — the latter particularly relevant now that certain websites are being blocked by Australian ISPs. All of these are available in the Chrome Web Store and in the Firefox Add-ons directory.

Minimising mobile data usage

Short on your gigabytes when out and about? Here are the tools you need to grab yourself some extra data

While monthly quotas for landline broadband services have (thankfully) finally grown to the point at which you generally don’t have to stress over your data usage, the same is not true for mobile services. Most mobile services offer only a few gigabytes per month, the kind of quota that can be easily wiped out with system and app updates, plus casual browsing. Worse, most post-paid mobile services will charge a ludicrous excess usage fee if you do accidentally go over your quota.

Luckily, there are tools to help you deal with quota anxiety. This month, we’re going to look at some of the top techniques to reduce your mobile data usage.

Troubleshooting Android bugs

Android is a fantastic operating system, but its numerous versions and thousands of hardware variations mean that frustrating bugs do pop up from time to time.

Most of these nasty bugs can be fixed quite easily, but the more stubborn ones can take a little digging to find and rectify the root problem. To help get you started on troubleshooting, we’ve put together a guide to the most common potential issues and how to fix them. We tested with a Nexus 6P running Android 7, so your phone’s menu layouts and options may vary somewhat.